As America gets used to the words, "President-elect Barack Obama," it's both amusing and cringe-inducing to watch Barack Obama himself get comfortable with the concept.

What would have been nothing more than an inconsequential aside when he was a mere mortal, that being a reference to Nancy Reagan's seances, suddenly became a cause celebre in the Conservative blogosphere (which is not willing to give the man a nanosecond of honeymoon period) now that he's the leader of the free world.

It necessitated a personal call of apology to America's most revered widow, who probably wasn't all that offended, anyway, considering it was actually Hillary who held the seances and Nancy who brought in astrologers. But that's off the point.

From now on, he'll have to realize that every grunt and burp is going to be scrutinized, parsed, and mined for its subtext. It's a shame, for it may strip the man of his spontaneity and quick wit. Ronald Reagan, as we know, never learned to zip it. Remember the time he tested the microphone by announcing that we were going to begin bombing Moscow immediately? It almost started World War III.